In the world of wearables, there are smartwatches, there are activity trackers, and then there’s virtually everything else as the two former categories are by and large the most popular. Both Fossil and Misfit can be categorized into one of these two groups, although Fossil is still relatively new to smartwatches since they have only recently launched their Q Founder Android Wear watch as well as two fitness trackers. What they do have oodles of experience in is making traditional watches that simply tell the time and act as a fashion piece. Fossil may soon be more than well equipped to take on the world of wearables though in addition to smartwatches, as they have just agreed to purchase Misfit.
As part of this acquisition, Misfit’s CEO is to become the President and CTO of Fossil’s connected devices group, but the shift in position won’t happen until the sale is final, which is expected to happen before 2016. Misfit, which Fossil has agreed to pay $260 million for, has just recently launched their brand new activity tracker called the Shine 2, which boasts a handful of improvements over the previous model as well as subtle refinements to enhance the tech that was already offered on the original Shine.
The good news for those who have been fans of what Misfit has offered so far is that under the new Fossil leadership, they will still continue to produce their own devices that likely follow the same or similar design schemes. Now, however, Fossil will have the team as well as the expertise, to take Misfit’s technology and integrate it into devices which take on a more traditional style watch aesthetic, which should appeal more to consumers who don’t care for the sporty or active look, yet still want to have the functionality that comes with a fitness/activity tracker. Fossil is deeply rooted in the watch industry with plenty of fashionable offerings, and Misfit’s trackers also seem to share the same kind of passion for a more stylish design approach, so the acquisition makes perfect sense. For Fossil, they now have better-positioned technology to break into the wearables market, and Misfit now has access to all of Fossil’s distribution as well as their brands. Misfit recently unveiled they were preparing to unveil two new wearables for CES 2016 that weren’t the Shine 2, so perhaps there is a chance one fo these will have to do with this acquisition.